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Columbus Was Trying to Find a Short Route to India 















Columbus and Pepper 

OR 

The Little Folks From Science Town 

By Mary Earle Hardy 



Pictures by 

CORNELLA NORRIS GILBERT 


ALBERT^WHITMAN 

€r* CO. 

CHICAGO 












'PLio 

.vto 

Copyright 1929 Gcr 

ALBERT WHITMAN & CO. 

Chicago. U. S. A. v 



HOME-CORNER LIBRARY 

Little Folks From Etiquette Town 
Little Folks From Spotless Town 
Eskimo Island and Penguin Land 
Sixty Games and Pastimes 
Real Nature Stories 
Robin Red Breast’s Home 
Circus Animals in punland 
Home-Corner Stories 


PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. 


DEC -7 !92©cia 17263 



















To my daughter 

Mary Theoda Hardy 



V 






CONTENTS 


Page 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 

East India Company-Home of Pepper Plant — Indebted to 

Pepper for Discovery-Wild Pepper Vine.13 

MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 

Coal-Great Salt Lake-Indian Legend of Salt — Most 

Famous Salt Mines-Mountain of Salt — Oldest Salt Mine 

in the U. S. -Salt Works in Detroit-Salt Deposits-Salt 

for Money-“Salary” - .21 

OUR SEVEN DAYS 

Thor-Fraya-Tyr-Woden-Saturn.34 

THE INDIAN CALENDAR 

Elks’ Teeth-Indian Names of Months-Names of Months - 42 

THE GEMS OF SAND 

Emperor Nero — How Rocks Are Colored-Jewels-Ob¬ 
sidian— Quartz. --57 

THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 

Astrophyton Agassizii Nautilus Oysters Radiates 

Starfishes Squids - -- -- -- -- --68 

THE CRAB’S QUEER ARMOR 

A Crab’s Armor-King Crab.78 

FROM PLANTS AND FIBERS 

Century Plant-Flax-First Rope-maker in the Colonies- 

Henequin Fiber-Manila Hemp-New Zealand Flax 88 

THE RED CEDAR AND GRAPHITE 

Cedars-“Faber”-Graphite-Lead.100 


9 























LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Page 

Columbus Was Trying to Find a Short Route to India - - Frontispiece 

“It’s Easy Enough to See Why They Are Called Starfish” - 12 

The Black Pepper Plant.17 

Arthur Was Quick to Hunt Up His Friend -------- 27 

A Great God Presiding Over Its First Hours.35 

A Kind of Old Father Time.39 

They Represented Janus With a Scepter and a Key in His Hand - 45 

Mars, the Romans’ God of War . ..49 

He Was Trying to Understand His Uncle’s Stories ----- 53 

“She Is Prettier Than Father Time Was”. --55 

Alice and Miss Dana Were on One of the Sand Dunes - - - - 5 7 

“What’s That, Phil? Look Quick!”.79 

“That String Came From the Philippines”.89 

The Leaf and Flower of the Cotton Plant.93 

The Flax Plant, Delicate and Graceful.- 95 

The Sisal Plant Is a Cousin of the Century Plant.97 

“My Tree Grew in Southern Florida”.105 

It Seemed To Be Saying, “Hurry Up! Hurry Up!”.109 






























































Columbus and Pepper 

O you know that we are in¬ 
debted to pepper for the 
discovery of America by Co¬ 
lumbus?’’ asked Mr. Stuart. 
_ He was furnishing his chil¬ 
dren with real scientific information having 
some background of history. 

Isabel and Elmer, the elder children, looked 
puzzled, and Arthur, the younger brother, 
gave a low whistle. 

“What land was Columbus trying to find?’’ 
asked their father. 

“Why, he was trying to find a short route 
to India,’’ Elmer answered. 

“And why was he anxious to find a direct 
route to India?’’ Mr. Stuart continued. 

At first no one answered. All seemed to be 
thinking. At length Elmer said,—“I never 
thought anything about it before, but I sup¬ 
pose the spirit of adventure and discovery 
possesses all explorers. We are all Alexan¬ 
ders after a fashion, wanting some new world 


13 






14 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


to conquer. Besides, we like to know all we 
can and be able to go everywhere, even to 
the North Pole and the planet Mars.” 

“That is true,” said his father. “But Co¬ 
lumbus had another reason for trying to find 
a more direct route to India. It was the same 
reason that prompted Queen Isabella to sell 
her jewels to aid in the attempt. India was 
the land where pepper grew ” 

“It also was the land where a great many 
other plants grew,” interrupted Elmer. 

“But no plant, in that day, was so important 
as pepper,” said his father. “As much as 
pepper is used by us at the present time, it is 
as nothing in comparison to its use in ancient 
times. It took the place of money with indi¬ 
viduals and nations who paid their debts with 
pepper. It is said to have been literally worth 
its weight in gold in Rome in the last part of 
the Christian era. Taxes were paid in pep¬ 
per. Governments used pepper when pay¬ 
ing tribute to other nations. 

“When soldiers returned victorious from 
wars, pepper was weighed out to them as 
part payment for their services. 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


15 



Pepper Was Worth Its Weight in Gold in Rome the 
Last of the Christian Era 

“We are told in history that when Alaric 
the Visigoth besieged Rome in 410 it was 
pepper that helped to deliver the city. He 
was induced to retire on the costly treasures 
Rome bestowed, among which were three 
thousand pounds of pepper. 

“It was so costly in the Middle Ages that a 
king could scarcely give a more royal present 
than a few pounds of pepper to another mon¬ 
arch whom he wished to conciliate or to 
honor. 





















16 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“Meats and confections were highly spiced 
with it. The great Alexander might have 
been as well served as Jack Horner who sat 
in the corner with plums in his pudding, but 
plums would have been as nothing if his pud¬ 
ding had not had a big seasoning of pepper. 

“Not Europe alone dealt so heavily in 
pepper, but Egypt as well, and some of the 
streets in Alexandria were named in honor 
of the traffic. Marco Polo tells us that for 
one ship that went to Alexandria with its 
cargo of pepper a hundred more went to 
China. 

“India, the home of the pepper plant, was 
a long way off, and its products were brought 
over deserts and plains and mountains and 
seas by perilous roads and at great expense, 
and its merchantmen were at liberty to charge 
for it such prices as they pleased. 

“We are told that explorers before Colum¬ 
bus had sought a nearer approach to the land 
of spices, the most important of which was 
pepper.” 

Mr. Stuart paused in his story and Isabel 
exclaimed, “Why, Father, you are helping me 












18 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


with my history lesson for tomorrow. We 
were asked to tell how much Columbus prob¬ 
ably knew about India and why he was so 
anxious to find a route across the sea to that 
far-away land.” 

“It helps us to understand some other 
things,” said Elmer. “The Queen could well 
afford to sell her jewels on a venture, for who¬ 
ever discovered the easy route to India re¬ 
duced the price of pepper and had the mo¬ 
nopoly of trade in all the spices.” 

“Very true, but pepper has influenced the 
world’s history in a later day,” said Mr. Stu¬ 
art. “It was largely through pepper that 
England came into possession of her Indian 
Empire. 

“The Dutch, who at one time had the su¬ 
premacy of the spice trade, charged a dollar 
and a half a pound for pepper, and accordingly 
for other things brought from India. A com¬ 
pany was formed in Great Britain known as 
the famous East India Company. This com¬ 
pany gradually gained in power until the 
Dutch were driven out, and finally Queen 
Victoria was announced Empress of India. 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


19 


We know now that what seem like little 
things in the beginning bring great results.’’ 

“Does our pepper grow on those pepper 
trees we saw in California?’’ asked Arthur. 

“Oh, no, not at all,” their father answered. 
“The pepper of commerce does not grow 
upon a tree, but is the product of a vine, and 
it is the only spice we know of that grows 
upon a vine. 

“The plant requires a warm, moist climate 
and rich soil and plenty of rain, and is grown 
now in many tropical countries that supply 
these conditions, though Southern India still 
gives the largest quantity to the markets. 

“Pepper still commands the highest price of 
any of the spices. Records show that in 1 848 
six million pounds were received in New 
York and much more at other ports. 

“Our pepper is the dried seeds of the wild 
pepper vine, whose fruit grows in clusters 
something after the manner of currants. 
When the berries begin to turn red, they are 
gathered and soaked to remove the skins and 
pulp. 

“The vine bears two crops each year, and 


20 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


is a pretty sight with its large glossy leaves 
and white flowers followed by the bright 
berries.” 

“Who would ever have thought that pepper 
had such an interesting history?” said Isabel 
thoughtfully. 

“It was a very happy thing for us that 
Columbus found this new world!” said Ar¬ 
thur. “Don’t you think, too, that it happened 
at just the right time?” he asked. 







MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 

“Please pass me the oldest thing now on 
the table,” said Elmer, assuming an air of 
dignity. Elmer was in the eighth grade at 
school and was making his lessons practical. 

With amused interest the Stuart family 
scanned the table. 

“Nothing old on this dinner table!” ex¬ 
claimed Arthur, his younger brother. 

Their elder sister Isabel poured a glass of 
water and handed it to Arthur with the words: 
“What we don’t know about we may give 
the benefit of a generous guess. This water 
may have been sailing in the clouds since the 
flood.” 

Elmer shook his head, “What I want is 
something older than the flood,” he said. 


21 



22 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


Arthur jumped up from the table and 
brought a piece of coal from the hearth. 

“There!’’ he exclaimed, “that’s the oldest 
thing on earth.’’ 

“What I am asking for is millions of years 
older than coal,’’ Elmer answered myste¬ 
riously. 

“You must want the firmament or the 
waters under the earth,’’ exclaimed Arthur. 

“That last is not so bad as you might 
think,’’ Elmer answered with the same air of 
mystery. 

“Pass him the salt shaker,’’ said their 
father. 

Elmer bowed, smiled and said: “That’s 
what I wanted.’’ 

Arthur looked puzzled and bewildered. 

“Nothing old about that!’’ he exclaimed. “I 
saw salt being made in Detroit last summer.’’ 

“Did you see the men making it?’’ asked 
his father. 

“Certainly I did, sir,’’ Arthur answered 
with emphasis. “I saw the whole thing from 
beginning to end—from pumping the brine 
to putting the salt in barrels ready to ship. 


MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 


23 



And I don’t understand what Elmer means 
by calling salt older than coal.” 

“But what about the brine? Where did 
that come from?” said his father. 

Arthur thought for a minute, and then 
said: “Oh, I know. The brine was in the 
earth already. The men at the mill were 
pumping it up and getting the salt out of it. 
How did it get there? Is it really older than 
coal?” 

“Ask Elmer,” said his father. 

“There are great beds of salt lying below 
the coal,” Elmer answered. “They were put 
there before the great forests grew which 
were changed to the coal we are burning now. 


24 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


As geologists count, the Carboniferous Age, 
when coal was being formed, was something 
like 17,000,000 years ago; and the Silurian 
Age, when the salt was made and stored 
away, was ages before that.” 

‘ ‘That’s wonderful! * ’ exclaimed Arthur, 
‘‘I’ll never feel like being so disrespectful as 
to shake salt again. But how did the salt get 
there, is what I wonder.” 

‘‘Nobody was there to tell us,” said Elmer, 
‘‘but from what we see now, we can judge 
something of how it was done. We know that 
where the briny water of the ocean, or even 
of salt springs, stands long in hollows of 
the earth a deposit of salt crystals settles 
at the bottom. Where this is repeated over 
and over again the salt bed deepens. At last 
when the water is shut off entirely the bed of 
salt is left. But some of the beds of salt found 
in the earth are nearly a hundred feet in 
thickness, or even more, and are buried hun¬ 
dreds or even thousands of feet deep. This 
tells a story of the long period in which salt 
was being stored for the world that was to 
be.” 


MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 


25 


“Well, I should say that looks like ages 
ago!” exclaimed the irrepressible Arthur. 

‘Anybody with ordinary sense can under¬ 
stand this world didn’t grow by chance. But 
how did the people find out that salt was 
hidden there?’’ 

“Vast cavities in the earth filled with pre¬ 
cious metals as well as with salt have been 
exposed by great upheavals of the earth’s 
crust, so that, in many places, buried strata 
are tilted edgewise to the surface. Sometimes 
such beds of salt have been discovered by 
wells put down for water, running into brine. 
Some of the salt beds are so pure as to look 
like solid glass.’’ 

Just then Elmer was interrupted by the 
arrival of guests who were planning to spend 
the evening. Arthur was not the only one 
who was disappointed. 

“This salt talk proves very interesting; let 
us continue it tomorrow night,’’ said Mr. Stu¬ 
art. “That will give time for every one to find 
out something more about salt.’’ 

Arthur was quick to hunt up his friend 
Edward Palmer, who had lived at Salt Lake 


26 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


City. Edward told him of visits he had made 
with his father to the great salt works eight¬ 
een miles from the city. Here the brine is 
drawn from Salt Lake into great ponds to the 
depth of several inches and left to evaporate 
in the dry air and bright sun for several 
weeks. Then it is run into other ponds of 
richer brine. This process is repeated for 
several months until a thick deposit of salt 
crystals lies at the bottom of the ponds which 
cover acres of ground. At last the salt lying 
in great piles like drifts of snow, is carried to 
refineries, where it is purified and dried by 
machinery and heat. 

“The water in Salt Lake is so full of salt a 
fellow can’t sink in it if he tries. I tried it, and 
so I know,’’ said Edward with a grin. 

“The fact is,” he continued, “every gallon 
of its water contains two pounds of salt.” 

Arthur did not stop with the salt works of 
Utah. He hunted up a booklet that was given 
him at the refinery in Detroit the summer 
before, and read how the Michigan salt indus¬ 
try began in a small way when lumbering was 
the chief business of the state. The pioneers 



Arthur Was Quick to Hunt Up His Friend 














































































































28 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


were having to pay high prices for their salt 
which was brought from the Atlantic Coast. 
Some alert lumbermen had learned that salt 
lay hundreds of feet down and calculated that 
by boring wells it might be reached and 
brought up by using the surplus steam from 
their sawmills. This they did; and this was 
the beginning of Michigan’s great salt indus¬ 
try which has the deepest salt mine in the 
world, it being 2,200 feet deep. A small pipe 
inside of a larger one brings up the brine, 
which is forced up by pressure of water forced 
down the outer pipe. 

The next evening Arthur was prepared and 
eager for the dinner-hour to come. 

When the bell rang all were promptly in 
their places. At the proper time their father 
said: “Since Isabel is the lady of our trio it 
will be polite to ask her to begin our salt 
talk.’’ 

Isabel answered promptly: “I have learned 
of salt for money. Small cubes were the small¬ 
est coins of the country, and it required eighty 
to one hundred of these to amount to what 
we call a dollar. I have learned, too, that if you 


MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 


29 


break up a large cubical crystal you will get 
many little cubes just as perfect, and that it is 
the way of salt to crystallize in cubes. I have 
read, too, of a mountain of rock salt in Spain 
which is several hundred feet high, and as 
clear as glass. When the sun shines on it, 
it looks like a mountain of rainbows.’’ 



T\ 



Crystals of Common Salt 


“Good!” said Mr. Stuart. “And now, Ar¬ 
thur, let us hear from you.” 

Arthur repeated what his friend Edward 
Palmer had told him of the Great Salt Lake 
and its interesting salt works, of the salt in¬ 
dustry in Michigan and how it started, and 
what he had seen on his visit to the refinery. 


“I have read,” he added, that 50,000,000 
barrels of salt were used in the United States 
















30 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



in I 927, and each barrel of salt weighed 280 
pounds.” 

When Elmer was called upon he made his 
eighth-grade Latin help in his report. He 
said: “Our English word ‘salary’ harks back 
to the days of ancient Rome and has a bit of 
history surrounding it. ‘Salary’ is from the 
Latin word ‘salarium’ which was the name 
given to the portion of salt allowed the Roman 
legionaries in their rations, and which came 
afterward to apply to all the rations they 
received; and so it has come down to the 








































MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 


31 


present day, when we still speak of the salary 
one receives. 

“The oldest salt mines of the United States 
are at Avery Island, in Louisiana. I find, 
too, that salt in its purity has long been re¬ 
garded as an emblem of fidelity. To have 
eaten of his salt and so to have partaken of 
his hospitality, was and is regarded by the 
Arab as a pledge of abiding friendship. In 
the time of Christ the Dead Sea appears to 
have been the chief salt supply.” 

Mr. Stuart then told of the most wonder¬ 
ful and most famous salt mines in the world, 
under the town of Wieliczka, in Galicia. 

“The work there is carried on by methods 
which seem crude to us, but there are results 
within the mines that astonish the world. The 
workings run down to more than 1,000 feet, 
where there are underground villages whose 
streets and galleries are more than 77 miles 
in length. In the solid rock salt are cut 
chapels and halls with statues and altars and 
chandeliers. 

“The Chapel of Cunegund, for example, 
which is reached by a stairway of forty-six 


32 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


steps, is a room 1 50 feet long by forty-five 
feet wide and thirty feet high. Its white walls 
are beautiful with carving and statues, and 
lit by a great chandelier seven feet in diameter 
and holding 200 lighted candles. Beside this 
chapel, there are others equally wonderful 
and beautiful; and they show how artist souls 
may live and work wherever they may be 
placed.’’ 

A silence followed this wonderful account; 
then Arthur said: “Now, Mother, you always 
know beautiful stories. I wouldn’t wonder 
if we had saved the best to the last.’’ 

Mrs. Stuart smiled at the compliment, and 
said: “I am reminded of a legend among the 
Indians of Mexico, accounting for the salt 
found here and there in the southwest. Very 
long ago, they said, the Goddess of Salt lived 
in a country by the sea. She was happy in 
the midst of her jewels and no one invaded 
her realm. But at length a strange people 
came to her shores, carried away her treas¬ 
ures and offered no redress. When she could 
bear their cruelty no longer she fled, leaving 
her jewels and her kingdom by the sea. 


MILLIONS OF YEARS AGO 


33 


Wherever she rested the springs were made 
briny with her tears. At last, in pity, the moun¬ 
tains opened a door and extended a refuge 
to her; as she stooped to enter, the high 
plumes upon her headdress were broken upon 
the rocks, the wind caught their shining frag¬ 
ments and scattered them over the sand. Thus 
the Mexican Indians explain the sad, salt 
springs and the salt crystals in the lands they 
know/’ 




OUR SEVEN DAYS 


An evening came when the children were 
enjoying a visit after dinner with their Uncle 
John. He was a great reader, studying al¬ 
ways so as to know many interesting facts. 
He was always eager to pass on to his three 
curious young relatives his large fund of in¬ 
formation. 

Rose had already begun to question him 
about the naming of the week days. Uncle 
John readily responded: 

“No one knows exactly how or when the 
week of seven days originated, but we know 
it was long before the Christian era and in far 
distant lands. We know also that from Alex¬ 
andria to Europe at a very early day came the 


34 



A Great God Presiding Over Its First Hours 













36 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


plan of dividing the month into four weeks of 
seven days each. 

“About the time of the Christian era, Rome 
adopted this plan and the people of that city 
seem to have liked it better than their pre¬ 
vious week, which had eight days. But not 
until the time of the Emperor Constantine 
was the change made legal. 

“Along with the week of seven days came 
the names which the ancient Egyptians had 
given to the days. 

“The people who lived in those far-away 
ages spent a great deal of time in the study of 
the stars, and they ascribed to the heavenly 
bodies many wonderful influences. They 
readily believed that whatever they were un¬ 
able to understand or to account for was to be 
traced in some unknown way to the power 
of the sun or of the moon or of the stars. They 
believed that each hour of the day was in 
charge of one of these heavenly bodies. Each 
day, therefore, was named for the divinity 
they imagined presided over the first hours of 
that day. 

“Thus Sunday was the day which was dedi- 


OUR SEVEN DAYS 


37 


cated to the Sun, supposed to be a great god 
presiding over its first hours. 

“Monday was in like manner the Moon s 
day. 

'The ancient Romans having adopted the 
week of seven days, took it with them when 
they went into Gaul; and the Northern races 
were quick to learn the Roman division of the 
days; but they gradually substituted the 
names of their own favorite heroes or divin¬ 
ities for the names of the heathen gods of 
Rome. 

“So it was that Tuesday , which had been 
the day dedicated to the old Roman war-god, 
Mars, became the day of the Northern war- 
god, Tyr or Twi. This Northern god of war 
and of victory was a left-handed god, or, 
rather, he was a god with but one hand, and 
that was his left. That is another story, how 
this old god, Tyr, of the Germans lost his 
right hand. 

“In a little while this third day of the week 
came to be known as Tyr’s day or Twi’s day; 
and from that came our name Tuesday. 

“The fourth day of the week had been 


38 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


Mercury’s day to the Romans. The Germans 
had called it ‘mid-week day.’ To the Ger¬ 
mans, as well as to the other Northern na¬ 
tions, Mercury—the name of the swift-winged 
messenger-god—signified but little, and so 
they translated Mercury to mean the kingly 
Odin or Woden, who was the chief god of the 
Northmen. He was the source of wisdom and 
the maker of heroes. It is from this Woden’s 
day that we have our Wednesday . 

“Thursday was originally Jupiter’s day, 
because this king of the gods was believed to 
preside over its opening hours; and to the 
Romans Jupiter was the thunderer. In his 
hand he gathered the thunderbolts and hurled 
them through the sky at his pleasure. 

“Thor was the thunderer of the Northern 
nations, and when he hurled his heavy ham¬ 
mer—the crusher—its blows echoed through 
the sky. Jupiter was also regarded as a divin¬ 
ity who protected law and who guarded the 
people against injustice. Thor was honored 
in the north because he slew the trolls or evil 
spirits. He was the champion of the gods, the 
friend of the peasants and the promoter of 



V 


A Kind of Old Father Tim 

















































































































































































































































































































































40 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


justice and of peaceable industry. So Jupi¬ 
ter’s day of the Romans became Thor’s day 
to the Northmen, and from this we have our 
T hursday. 

“The next day of the week in Rome was 
sacred to Venus, and Venus was the goddess 
of love and beauty, who ‘turned the hearts of 
men,’ and whose magic girdle gave wonder¬ 
ful gifts to its wearer. In the North Fraya was 
the goddess of love and beauty. She had 
golden hair and blue eyes that looked admir¬ 
ingly upon all who did brave deeds. She was 
tall and graceful, and wearing a shining hel¬ 
met, she rode in a chariot and guided her span 
of great gray cats. The Northmen loved their 
fair goddess Fraya, and instead of calling the 
sixth day of the week Venus’ day they called 
it Fraya’s day and from Fraya day we have 
our Friday . 

“Saturday keeps in memory the old Roman 
faith in their god, Saturnus, or Saturn. He 
seems to have been a kind of old ‘Father 
Time,’ and like him he is often represented in 
pictures carrying a scythe. The story is that 
he was a famous king in Italy in the very 


OUR SEVEN DAYS 


41 


early days; that he loved the people and 
taught them agriculture and the arts of civil¬ 
ized life; and his reign was so good that it 
came to be called ‘The Golden Age.’ When 
his work was done, he was said to have been 
conveyed to the heavens to be a god hence¬ 
forth. 

“This is the story of the days of the week 
and how they came to have the names we call 
them. There are many other interesting 
stories which this one suggests—stories about 
Tyr, and Woden, and Thor, and Fray a, and 
their neighbors.’’ 

Here Uncle John stopped. The children 
who had listened with attention, felt full of 
regret when they realized he had finished. 
However, he promised to come again before 
long in order to share with them more of the 
wonderful facts he had stored away. 




THE INDIAN CALENDAR 


The last day of the old year had arrived; 
the air was full of whirling snow and the 
gusty wind was piling it into drifts and filling 
up every hollow. The snow and the wind 
together seemed determined to blot out the 
old familiar world, and to have a new world 
ready for the New Year to begin its first day’s 
work on the morrow. 

Four rollicking children had been out in 
the storm for an hour; wind-blown, storm- 
driven, and snow-covered, they had built 
snow forts and manned them with snow sol¬ 
diers. They had hollowed out caves in the 
drifts and like little Eskimos they had crept 
into the low doors of their igloos and laughed 
at the storm. 

At last they had left their play in the snow, 
and within the house they were like restless 
young Alexanders looking for new worlds 
to conquer. 


42 




THE INDIAN CALENDAR 


43 


“I think we had better take down this old 
calendar. It’s worn out and its days have 
all gone into yesterdays,” said the middle one 
of the young Alexanders. And down came 
the calendar from the place where it had 
hung for twelve long months. 

“I am almost sorry we took it down,” said 
the oldest of the conquerors, looking ruefully 
at the empty space upon the wall. 

Even as she spoke a loud stamping was 
heard on the porch. Surrounded by a flurry 
of snow, in came their Uncle John, who was 
the heart’s delight of them all. 

Before shaking the white flakes from his 
coat, he tossed the children a package and 
said, ‘‘Here’s a new calendar. You will want 
to know what day tomorrow will be.” 

Upon the old calendar had been a picture 
of Father Time with his scythe and his hour¬ 
glass. 

When the wrappings were taken off from 
the new one, the picture revealed was that 
of a winsome little Indian girl. The calendar 
was bordered with interlacing strips of deer¬ 
skin and trimmed with strings of bright- 


44 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



colored beads. On the back of the calendar 
was the name of the little Indian girl—“Pretty 
Bird,” and “From the Crow Mission, Green 
Lodge, Montana.” Ribbons and bits of sea- 
shells were braided in her long black hair, 










C.NOBRiL, 

GILBERT 


They Represented Janus With a Scepter and a Key 


in 


His Hand 




























































46 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


and her dress was ornamented with rows 
of elks’ teeth. 

She looks like a little papoose princess,*’ 
said the children’s Uncle John. “Elks’ teeth 
are getting very scarce, and they cost so much 
that not every squaw-mother can afford to 
go shopping for elks’ teeth.” 

“Pretty Bird is prettier than Father Time 
was,” said Rose, the oldest of the trio—the 
one who their uncle declared did the thinking 
for the group. 

The two younger children continued to 
admire their new gift, hanging it in the place 
of the old calendar and chattering in child 
fashion about the pretty little Indian girl and 
her curious name. 

But the more thoughful Rose climbed onto 
the arm of her uncle’s chair and asked, “Do 
the Indians have the same names for the 
months that we do?” 

“Not until they learn to live like white 
men, little Rosebud, her uncle answered. 
‘Their months, though, were regulated some¬ 
thing as ours have been, by the visits of the 
moon to the earth. 


THE INDIAN CALENDAR 


47 


Indians call the month of early spring 
the moon of budding leaves.’ June is their 
moon of strawberries.’ The time when fruits 
and grains are ripening they call ‘the moon 
of harvest.’ October is to them ‘the moon 
of falling leaves,’ and our Christmas and New 
Year months they call ‘the moon of dropping 
horns,’ because in the winter the deer and 
elk shed their antlers.” 

‘‘The Indian names for the months are 
nice and mean something,” said little Rose 
thoughtfully. ‘‘But our names are long and 
hard to spell and they don’t seem to have 
any story done up in them, as the Indian 
names do. Do they really mean anything, 
Uncle John?” 

‘‘Indeed, they do, little Blossom; and they 
have stories done up in them, too,” her uncle 
answered. 

‘‘First comes Captain January—the leader 
of the twelve months. He will be here to¬ 
night, in spite of all the storm and the drifting 
snow. The old Romans—a people who lived 
a great while ago—named this month after 
their heathen god, Janus, whom they thought 


48 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


looked after the beginning of things. They 
thought, too, that he was the one who opened 
doors and gates and who closed them again. 
They made queer pictures of him with two 
faces, for they said since he opened and closed 
gates he must be able to look both ways. 

“They thought it was Janus who opened the 
cloudy doors and let the sun out in the morn¬ 
ing to run his course through the sky, and 
that it was he who closed the sky doors at 
evening also. So they represented Janus with 
a scepter and a key in his hands. 

“The second month of the year was sacred 
to their god Februus. 

“No valentine nor valentine parties had 
those old Romans in February, but instead 
strange ceremonies of washing and cleansing, 
and days on which they carried food and 
drink to the tombs. Their Roman word, 
‘Februare,’ which means to purify, was the 
name they gave the month that follows Cap¬ 
tain January. 

“March was named for Mars—the Ro¬ 
mans’ god of war—and though Mars was 
supposed to delight in war-horses, and hur- 



CNDfWlL, 

GILBERT 


Mars, the Romans’ God of War 































50 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


tling spears, and rattling armor, he was not 
as bad as it might seem, for in his heart he 
loved flocks and herds and was a good friend 
to the farmer. 

After the month when the wind carries 
sounds like the blasts of trumpets and the 
rattling of armor and the roar of battle, na¬ 
ture speaks with a softer voice, and in the 
month we call April the sunshine kisses and 
caresses the earth till it warms and opens to 
receive the grains we sow; and the seeds that 
lie in its bosom burst open and grow. The 
closed bulb opens, and sends up a lily; the 
acorn bursts open and an oak leaps out. This 
is what we see in the spring, and it is what 
the old Romans saw when they gave the name 
of April to this month, for April means the 
time of opening. 

“May—our merry month—has a sad little 
story done up in its name. The story is about 
seven beautiful sisters who wept their lives 
away in grief, and were carried up to the sky 
to live forever, to be changed to a constella¬ 
tion of seven bright stars. I will show them 


THE INDIAN CALENDAR 


51 


to you sometime, little Rosebud. We call 
them now the Pleiades, or ‘Seven Sisters.’ 

“The most beautiful of all the seven was 
the eldest one, and her name was Maia, and 
she was the one for whom our month of May 
was named. These seven stars appeared in 
the sky above Rome at about this time of 
the year, and this is the story the Romans 
told their girls and boys about them. 

“June means strength. The strength of 
the sun is felt in the earth; the strength of 
the earth is seen in the lusty growth of flower 
and fruit. The name is believed, moreover, 
to have belonged to a brave but now forgotten 
family of Rome. 

“July was the birthday month of the great 
Julius Caesar, whom our little Rosebud will 
learn about one of these days. He was a 
great general and wrote about his many wars, 
and one of his mottoes was: ‘If one would be 
sure of having a thing done well, he must 
do it himself.’ So, July was named in honor 
of this great Julius. 

“There was another famous Caesar whose 
name was Augustus. He was a nephew of 


52 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


the great Julius. And since his uncle had 
a month named in his honor, Augustus said 
he would give his name to the next month, 
the month in which he had won the most 
battles and received the most honors. So 
August is Augustus Caesar’s month. 

“In the old days March was the first month 
of the Roman year, and September was the 
seventh. 

“The last four months of our year have 
the same names they bore in the Romans’ 
very ancient calendar. 

“September—being the seventh month re¬ 
ceived its name from Septem —the Roman 
word for seven. 

“October—the eighth month, had its name 
from the old Roman word—eight. 

“November was named from Novem — 
nine; and December from Decern which 
meant ten, December being the tenth month 
in the old-time calendar. 

“So we find, little Rosebud, that there is 
nothing of particular interest in the last four 
months of the calendar.” 

“Oh, Uncle John, you left one out!” ex- 






He Was Trying to Understand His Uncle’s Stories 

















54 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


claimed the second little Alexander who had 
paused in admiring the new calendar, and 
was trying to understand his uncle s stories. 

“Don’t you remember, Uncle John? De¬ 
cember has Christmas in it. And Bennie 
was four years old in September! And you 
know what you say about winter roses when 
sister Rose has her birthday in November.” 

“True, true enough!” exclaimed their 
uncle, “what do we care about old Roman 
calendars, and the birthdays of the Caesars, 
when we have such a lovely little squaw calen¬ 
dar and so many interesting birthdays of our 
own to celebrate!” 















































































THE GEMS OF SAND 


“Place your ear down on the sand, keep 
very still, and listen,” said Miss Dana; and 
Alice placed her head down on the white 
sand and listened. 

Why, I can hear little creepy whispers, a 
kind of soft singing!” she exclaimed. “What 
is it? Where does it come from?” 

Alice and Miss Dana were on one of the 
great sand-dunes that rim the south and east¬ 
ern shores of Lake Michigan and that rise in 
huge piles for forty miles or more. Beyond 
where they sat the sand was slowly but 
surely creeping down. Here and there dune 
grasses were catching into it with their fine 
roots and really sewing the sand into solid 


56 



Alice and M iss Dana Were on One of the Great Sand Dunes 




























































58 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


soil. Some day the hill of sand would be 
changed into a hill of grass and flowers and 
growing trees. 

Alice held her hand full of pebbles she had 
gathered; they were round and smooth. The 
little ‘creepy whispers,’ as you call them, are 
like faint songs tuned to the same key as the 
music of your pebbles when you rub them 
together,” said Miss Dana. “The grains of 
sand are just like your pebbles only ground 
fine.” 

‘‘I shake the pebbles against each other, 
but the sand is lying still,—it does not move 
at all,” said Alice with assurance. 

‘‘Are you certain?” asked Miss Dana. 

“Yes,” Alice answered. ‘‘I cannot see it 
move a single speck. Maybe it does though,” 
she added with less assurance. “I remember 
Aunt Mary told how still the glaciers look, 
but she said they do move and like great slow 
plows cut roads through the mountains.” 

Alice was thoughtful for a while and then 
she asked, “Do glaciers sing too? Aunt 
Mary told me about a glacier she saw in 
Alaska that did not look as if it were moving 


THE GEMS OF SAND 


59 




Sand Grains Magnified 



at all—not any more than this sand; but it 
did move and reached the ocean, and seemed 
to sing and shout when it threw its icebergs 
into the sea. Does everything have its song?’ 

“I think so,” Miss Dana answered. “I 
know a shore where the sands are so musical 
that the place is called Pas-ca-gou-la, which 
means Singing Sands.” 

The thrill of wonder and new thoughts sent 
a flush into the little girl’s cheeks and a spar¬ 
kle into her eyes. She gathered up a handful 
of sand. “It does look like little weenty- 
teenty pebbles, ” she said, “there are all colors 
too.” 

“And every single grain has its own espe¬ 
cial story,” said Miss Dana. “Some of the 


60 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


stories we know, but most of them are like 
fairy tales, and full of mystery and enchant¬ 
ment.’’ 

“I thought it was all just sand,—and not 
worth thinking about,’’ Alice said, stirring the 
sand and noticing for the first time its chang¬ 
ing colors in the sunlight. 

“Some of the grains have been traveling 
ever since the first rocks were made,’’ Miss 
Dana said, slowly sifting the sand through 
her fingers. “Waters and winds have tossed 
them and glaciers have carried them far. 

“Rocks have been made and worn down 
and broken to pieces and made over very 
many times, and sand has many strange 
stories to tell, if we could only understand 
them. 

“We think we know where some of the 
broken rocks come from, because we see they 
are like rocks that we recognize and that are 
slowly yielding to the stress of waves and the 
wear of winds and weather.” 

“I wish I knew all their stories,” said Alice 
wishfully. 

“What are these pieces so clear and shin- 


THE GEMS OF SAND 


61 


ing? she asked. “They look like little bits of 
glass.” 

Those are pieces of the hardest rocks we 
have. Quartz, we call it. It is so hard that it 
cuts glass like a diamond. Because it is so 
hard it takes long grinding and a great deal 
of pounding to make it into sand. 

“When the pieces are very clear they have 
another name that was given them long ago 
by a race of people who thought they were 
ice that had been frozen so long and so hard 
that it could never be melted. Crystal was 
their name for ice and these clear rocks are 
called Crystal. 

“When rock crystal is clear enough and in 
large pieces it is put to noble uses. The lenses 
of spectacles are made of crystal. Vases and 
drinking cups and beautiful jars are still found 
that long ago were made of crystal; some of 
them were engraved in a wonderful manner 
and were very expensive. 

“It is said that the Emperor Nero in a fit 
of passion dashed down two crystal vases and 
broke them to pieces. The value of one of 


62 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


them alone, in the money value of that time is 
said to have been 3,000 dollars.” 

Sand was having an interest for Alice 
which she never dreamed of before. She 
gathered up some of the tiny crystals. ‘‘May¬ 
be some of these are tiny pieces of Nero’s 
crystal vases,” she speculated, and Miss Dana 
answered, Who knows! If not pieces of 
Nero’s vases they are quite as wonderful and 
mysterious.” 

The grains of sand are of different colors,” 
said Alice, and they sparkle and shine just 
like jewels.” 

They are jewels,” Miss Dana answered, 
real jewels as much as those of larger size. 
These jewels are just big enough for the fairy 
queens to wear in their crowns, and to make 
necklaces for the fairies that dance in the 
moonlight.” 

This fancy pleased Alice, and she ex¬ 
claimed, “Oh, are they really fairy jewels that 
nobody owns—jewels that the fairies can use 
in their own fairyland—jewels that the winds 
play with and toss about as if they were only 


THE GEMS OF SAND 


63 


sand? Where do such jewels come from and 
how do they get such lovely colors?’’ 

“Oh, that is another fairy story,’’ Miss 
Dana replied, “or rather it is a part of Earth’s 
magic. They are bits of quartz rock that have 
been colored.’’ 

“Rocks colored!’’ exclaimed Alice. “That 
must be magic, indeed! What can color rocks ? ’ ’ 

“The earth has many minerals that give 
colors to the rocks,’’ Miss Dana explained. 
“Some crystals seem to refuse to be colored 
and always keep their clearness—their purity, 
we say; but others are made beautiful by the 
minerals that lie near them. Iron is one of 
Nature’s most important coloring substances. 
It has been called Nature’s universal dye. 

“Stones have different shades according to 
the ‘time they have lain in the dye,’ as your 
mother said of the shade when she was color¬ 
ing your mittens; or different substances have 
mixed their colors.’’ 

While she listened in wonder, Alice had 
selected bits of sand that were of different 
colors. 

“Here is a grain just the color of the ruby 


64 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



Sun Picture 


in my ring,” she said; “you know the ruby is 
my birth-stone.” 

That grain of sand and the ruby in your 
ring are both colored by iron-rust. Iron-rust 
sounds very common and cheap, but rubies 
are really among the most famous of gems. 
They have been chief among crown jewels 
and have flashed their color in the armor of 
ancient knights and encrusted the sword hilts 
of famous warriors of olden times. 

“There is a charming story that has been 
handed down to us about a ruby, a woman’s 
Kindness, and a bird s gratitude. 






THE GEMS OF SAND 


65 


“A poor woman once found a young stork 
with a broken leg. She took it into her hut, 
bound up the broken bone, fed and tended 
the fledgling until it was able to care for itself. 
Months after when it returned from its migra¬ 
tion it flew to the hut where it had been cared 
for. The poor woman sat by her cabin door; 
the stork circled over her head and dropped 
a ruby into her lap. 

“That is almost 
like the crow Cou¬ 
sin Emma told me 
about that brought 
a ring and dropped 
it into the lap of a 
lady who had been 
kind to it,” said 
Miss Diana. 

“So the other is 
not an impossible 
story and proves 
how kindness is ap¬ 
preciated even by 
birds,” said Miss 
Diana. 






66 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“It doesn’t seem so strange, though, that 
great jewels should be made, but isn’t it won¬ 
derful that Nature should take the trouble to 
make little grains of sand so bright and shin¬ 
ing and pretty?” said Alice. 

Nature is but another name of God,” Miss 
Dana replied, “and with Him nothing is too 
small for His care. We know He must love 
everything to be beautiful, and to me a lovely 
lesson is hidden in His using so common and 
simple a substance as Iron to make jewels.” 

Here is something quite different,” and 
Miss Dana picked out a grain that was black 
and shining. 

'That looks like black glass,” said Alice. 

So it is. Miss Dana replied, “black glass 
made by a volcano that melted stones and 
sand in its fiery caldron. We call this Obsidi¬ 
an. There is such a mountain of black glass 
in the Yellowstone National Park in Wyom¬ 
ing. When the Government wished to make 
roads through the Park this mountain of glass 
was too hard to be worked by tools; so fires 
were built on its surface, then cold water from 
the lake below was dashed upon the hot glass 


THE GEMS OF SAND 


67 


and it was cracked and broken, and so roads 
were made. 

“Our glass goblets and bottles and all the 
glass we use are made of sand, not like black 
Obsidian, but the quartz that is pure and fine 
and mixed with substances—which you will 
learn about at another time. All are melted 
together until they are thin and can be 
worked, and men with long tubes blow the 
melted glass and shape it into whatsoever they 
wish. 

“Here our stories about the sand must end 
for to-day, for the sun has already gone down 
behind the hills and the sand no longer glitters 
in the sunshine, as it did an hour ago/’ 






THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 


“So you are beginning with starfish,” said 
Professor Davis, as he came upon Curtis and 
Sandy examining a starfish they had picked 
up. They are a good beginning, and we 
might study them and their relatives all our 
days and then not know everything about 
them. Here come Phil and Jack, who have 
always lived by the sea and ought to be able 
to tell a good deal about its inhabitants,” and 
the busy professor went down the beach, 
leaving the boys together. 

Curtis and Sandy had never been to the 
ocean before, and were finding so many won- 



THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 


69 


ders that they felt they were in a new world. 

Phil and Jack brought a squid they had 
captured and dropping it into a tide-pool, Jack 
said, “Now watch it flash its colors.” One 
minute it was brilliant red, changing to shades 
of yellow and green; then spots of blue flashed 
over its surface; presently it settled into the 
deepest part of the pool, its bright tints dis¬ 
appeared, and it grew so nearly the color of 
the sand as to be scarcely discernible. 

“Queer, isn’t it?” said a voice beside them. 

1 he boys had been so interested watching 
the squid that they did not see the fisherman 
until he spoke. 

“How does he do it?” asked Sandy. 

“That I cannot say,” the fisherman an¬ 
swered. “If you will look very closely you’ll 
see the squid’s head looks as if it were split 
up into arms, and those arms are pretty pow¬ 
erful weapons supplied with rows of suckers 
and stinging cells. He has a cousin with arms 
thirty feet long, who is so dangerous that we 
call him ‘the devilfish,’ and he lives up to his 
name. You would not want to meet him 
when you were in swimming! 


70 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“They also have some other excellent rela¬ 
tives though. Did you ever see the nautilus? 
It has one of the prettiest appearing sea-shell 
boats I ever gazed upon, and the little animal 
rides around in it as grand as a princess. 
You’ll see it some day.” 

While Curtis was watching the squid he 
had held the starfish he was examining by 
one of its rays. All at once it snapped away 
from the ray and dropped down upon the 
sand. Curtis looked at the piece in his hand 
and at the starfish on the sand, and his face 
showed such surprise and bewilderment that 
the fisherman laughed long and loud. 

“You haven’t hurt him a mite,’’ he said. 
“That’s just one of his sleight-of-hand per¬ 
formances. Another point will grow out as 
easy as your finger-nails grow. I guess you 
must be new-comers.” Curtis nodded. “Well, 
you’ll get better acquainted with the ocean 
inhabitants after a while. 

“Three-quarters of our globe is ocean, and 
its inhabitants aren’t any more like those on 
land than if they lived in one of the shining 
islands in the sky. It isn’t any wonder you 


THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 


71 


weren t prepared for that starfish’s trick. And 
there s never a tide nor a storm that doesn’t 
land some very curious organism on the 
beaches. I’ve seen enough to know that every 
deep sea-dredge brings up plants and animals 
that are mighty strange, and a great many of 



them have mystified the wisest scholars. Star¬ 
fishes are very plentiful and you’ll have a 
chance to get acquainted with them before 
the summer’s over. Phil here can tell you 
about them.” And waving his hand to the 
four boys the kind old man who loved the 
sea went on down the coast to look after his 
lobster-pots. 


72 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



Quickly the boys were down on the sand 
investigating the starfish. 

What did he mean about their being ‘built 
on the wheel-plan’?” asked Curtis. 

‘‘Their organs all radiate from a center,” 
said Phil, ‘‘the way the spokes of a wheel run 
out from a center, you know. There are a 
lot of such sea animals. They don’t look much 
alike when we first see them, but internally 
they are built on the same wheel-plan and so 
are related and are called radiates. That’s a 
right good name for them considering how 
they are made.” 



THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 


73 


It s easy enough to see why they are called 
starfish, said Sandy, holding up a five-rayed 
specimen. 

That s so, said Phil. “Most of them on 
our coast have five rays, but father tells of 
some he has seen with as many as forty 
points. We found some last summer up on 
the Maine coast that had nine slender arms 
divided and subdivided, and curled and twist¬ 
ed till they didn t look much like these stars. 
They were queer looking, but they were 
handsome, as well as curious. The folks up 
there called them basket fishes because they 
curl up like a basket. Father had us learn 
their scientific name. It’s a big one, Astrophy- 
ton Agassizii. How’s that for a name? I’d 
dislike having to be called that for short!’’ 

Curtis and Sandy tried to learn the name, 
and they all had good laughs over their blun¬ 
ders. 

“This starfish is pretty smooth and uncol¬ 
ored, you see,’’ said Phil, “but some of them 
are fringed and dotted with spines and tuber¬ 
cles, and gay with orange and yellow and 
purple and pink. Up at the house we have 


74 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


some you must see that have large central 
bodies, but with arms so short they look 
scarcely more than angles in the large disk¬ 
like bodies. Then there are others with the 
central body so small and the rays so long 
and sprawling that they make one think of 
giant ‘daddy-long-legs’ of the spider family. 

“Turn your starfish over and you’ll see 
its mouth in the center of the under side. Its 
star-shaped stomach runs out into the rays, 
and both the mouth and the stomach are most 
accommodatingly elastic so that a starfish is 
able to take in whole or by degrees prey that 
would be much too large for it to swallow 
otherwise.’’ 

“A starfish’s stomach is accommodating 
in another way,’’ said Jack, who knew sea life 
almost as well as his elder brother. “He can 
draw out his stomach and fold it around his 
victim and suck out its juices. You’ll discover 
them at it some day. They are hungry fel¬ 
lows, I assure you! 

“A little starfish no bigger than this one 
will eat as many as twenty good-sized oysters 


THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 


75 



Starfish Opening Oyster 


in a day, and good-sized oyster-beds are some¬ 
times destroyed by starfish in a single night. 

“Oyster men used to catch the starfish and 
cut them to pieces and throw them overboard, 
but they have learned better, for every piece 
with a bit of the body attached will grow into 
another starfish. 

“See those rows of little fringes along the 
under side of each ray. Would you ever think 
they are His Majesty’s feet, and he’s said to 
have a thousand of them. But for all that he’s 
no racer. His feet, though, are tubular and 
at the end of each is a sucker for adhesion. 

“Watch this one now,’’ and Phil held a stick 
to the feet of the starfish which they had 
turned over. As soon as the little drawn-in, 
tubular feet felt the stick they extended and 


76 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


clung to it, and the starfish turned itself right 
side up. “At the end of each ray is a little 
red spot, and these are supposed to be its eyes. 
There is one tube foot that has no sucker, and 
that, we are told, may be the starfish’s nose.’’ 

“Oh, my!’’ exclaimed Sandy, “who would 
ever guess there was so much that is wonder¬ 
ful in just a starfish.’’ 

“There’s another queer thing about them,’’ 
said Phil. “They are often luminous. This is 
especially true, father says, of those that are 
dredged from great depths.’’ 

Not long after the boys came upon a large 
starfish that was eating under difficulties— 
at least it seemed so to them. It was clinging 
to a rock over which waves were beating in 
storms of spray. By the sucker feet on two 
of its rays it clung to the rock; the other three 
rays were turned back and held a mussel- 
shell two inches long to its mouth from which 
it was sucking the juices of the helpless ani¬ 
mal within. So tight did it cling to the rock 
that it could be loosened only by running the 


THE CURIOUS SEA LIFE 


77 


blade of a hatchet between it and the face 
of the rock. 

“I think Mr. Starfish lost some of his toes,” 
said Sandy. But Mr. Starfish gave no sign, for 
he went right on with his feast. 



Sun Starfish 


Little Broad Claws 


THE CRAB'S QUEER ARMOR 

“What’s that, Phil? Look quick; it’s mak¬ 
ing for deep water. It’s just like a stone swim¬ 
ming around!’’ and in his excitement Curtis 
nearly tumbled off the rocks. 

Phil had brought a dip-net with a long han¬ 
dle, and with a skillful sweep he caught the 
“stone that was swimming around’’ and land¬ 
ed it on the rock at his feet. 

“It’s a bit of ocean camouflage,’’ he said 
with a laugh. “Look! there are legs under 
the stone and the tangle of seaweed.’’ 

The sprawling legs began to straighten, 
and the tangle of seaweed with the small 
stone in its midst edged away in a queer side¬ 
step fashion. 


78 



c. noaRis, 

GILBERT 


“What’s That, Phil? Look Quick!” 

































80 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



Well, if that isn t a surprise!” exclaimed 
Curtis. Your fisherman had it right yester¬ 
day when he said we would find here things 
so strange that we’d feel as if we were in a 
new world.” 

This was the second day for Curtis and 
Sandy at the seashore. Phil and Jack had 
lived on Cape Cod all their lives, and were 
almost as much at home among the waves as 
mermaids are said to be. They knew the in¬ 
habitants of the sea which are to be found 
on the sand and in tide pools as well as Curtis 
and Sandy knew the animals in the woods 
at home. 

Phil stopped the side-step of his captive 
and carefully removed the tangle upon its 
back, revealing a small crab with a gayly dec¬ 
orated shell. Curtis and Sandy stood wide- 
eyed with wonder. 


THE CRAB’S QUEER ARMOR 


81 


“Well!” exclaimed Curtis, “it looks as if 
Mr. Crab had dressed up and was starting on 
a parade to show himself off.” 

That s just what His Crabship was not 
doing, Phil replied. “He dressed up so as not 
to be seen. He knows the sea is full of hungry 
mouths, and he was trying to escape being 
caught and eaten. Some other of our sea-folk 
resort to the same trick and cover themselves 
with pieces of sponge and seaweed, and even 
shells and small stones, for concealment.” 

“It must take some brains to contrive that,” 
said the thoughtful Sandy. “We used to have 
crab chowder at home,” he added. “It came 
in cans, but that was all I knew about it. I 
never guessed where it came from. He is 
handsome enough to have been painted by an 
artist. Do you suppose crabs know enough to 
love beauty as well as to dress up for protec¬ 
tion?” 

“It looks like it,” Phil answered. “I wish 
we knew more about that. Most of them are 
handsomely decorated. These shells which 
we see are their skeletons, for it’s crab fash¬ 
ion to have their bones on the outside. They 


82 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



are queer, all of them, but unusually interest- 
• »♦ 
ing. 

Just at that moment Curtis, who had caught 
sight of a new bit of color on the sand half 
a dozen yards away, called out: 

“Here’s a big claw painted like those on 
the crab you have yonder. Some hungry sea- 
fellow has made a fine dinner on the rest of 
him. I think this claw was hard chewing.” 

“More likely there has been a fight and one 
of the pugilists has lost a claw,” said Jack. 

Crabs are cross fellows and always ready 








THE CRAB’S QUEER ARMOR 


83 



to seek a fight, and they often lose a claw or 
an eyestalk in the fracas; for you must know 
they have the power to push up their eyes for 
wider vision. But they never mind the loss of 
either, for they can quickly grow new ones.” 

Sandy picked up the claw and put it among 
the shells in his basket. 

“Here’s another of your sea puzzles!” he 
exclaimed and picked up a shining something 
from the sand. 

“The day of doom surely struck this fel¬ 
low, whoever he may have been,” he said con¬ 
fidently. 

“Don’t be too certain!” Jack answered. 
“That’s just the armor of another of our 
crabs. I wouldn’t wonder if the crab that 
wore it might at this minute be eating his 


84 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



Lady Crab 


supper somewhere in the shallows around 
this very point!” 

“Armor, did you say?” exclaimed Sandy 
in amazement. 

“Why, here is the whole thing, claws and 
all!” he cried, holding up the shell. 

“Yes, I know that is what it looks like,” 
Jack answered, “but it’s just the coat of mail 
cast off by one of our king crabs. They all 
wear such armor to the tips of their toes and 
to the end of their tails. They live among 
enemies and need to be protected, as we can 
now see.” 

Sandy’s look of incredulity began to change 
to one of interest and wonder, and Jack con¬ 
tinued : 


THE CRAB’S QUEER ARMOR 


85 



“The soft bodies of these king crabs are 
covered with hard shells like this one you have 
picked up. As the crabs grow, the shells, 
which do not grow, become too tight. 

“We can imagine the fellow that wore that 
armor said to himself, just as one of us would 
if our clothes were outgrown, ‘Ouch! This 
suit is too tight! It pinches! I can’t breathe!’ 
Only, of course, he spoke in crab language. 

“Then I expect Mr. Crab drew a long 
breath, and his armor split open. Look at the 
shell. We can see it is parted at the front. 

“ ‘There,’ said King Crab, ‘that’s some re- 
lief.’ Then he drew another long breath, and 
wiggled and twisted until little by little he 
loosened himself from the shell, and very 
slowly began to crawl out. 


86 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“If we had seen him, I think we would have 
thought the crab was crawling out of his own 
mouth. As you say, the shell is perfect to the 
tips of his toes. 

When these crabs get fairly out of their 
shells, their bodies at first are covered only 
with a tough skin, but this soon hardens and 
becomes another shell or armor as hard as this 
one you hold, and away goes King Crab in 
a new coat of mail which is roomy and com¬ 
fortable.” 

This King. Crab had changed his armor 
many times, as his growth made it neces¬ 
sary, said Jack, “so the experience very 
likely seemed a natural thing to him.” 

Curtis took the shell and examined it 
closely. 

“What are these ruffle-like appendages on 
the under side?” he asked. 

Oh, those were the coverings of his res¬ 
piratory organs—his lungs, if you please,” ex¬ 
plained Jack. 

He discarded his outgrown suit very neat¬ 
ly, and I m glad he left it for our examina¬ 
tion,” exclaimed Sandy. 


THE CRAB’S QUEER ARMOR 


87 


You 11 find plenty more of the same kind, 
for these king crabs, or horseshoe crabs, are 
common along our coast, all the way down 
to the Florida Keys and around the islands in 
tropic seas,” said Phil. “You will likely get 
acquainted with some other members of the 
family, too, before you leave.” 

“I’ll make sure of this specimen of King 
Crab’s coat of mail,” said Sandy, putting it 
carefully in his basket, along with the broken 
claw, tangles of seaweed and curious shells, 
all of which had their story. 





FROM PLANTS AND FIBERS 


'The wind has played pranks with this 
grape vine. We must tie it up. Have you a 
string in your pocket, Stanley?” said Mr. 
Gray. 

“Of course he has, ’ laughed his sister 
Emma. “Everything is to be found in Stan¬ 
ley’s pockets. They are our base of supplies.” 

“I’d call them museums!” said his older 
brother. 

I hope you are not so far removed from 
the days of the ‘barefoot boy’ as to have for¬ 
gotten when you carried toads in your 
pocket,” said Emma. 

In the meantime Stanley had pulled a 
string from his pocket, which his father pro¬ 
nounced ‘quite the thing.’ "But this Gordian 
Knot in one end will have to be cut before 
we can use it,” he added. 


88 






“That String Came From the Philippines’* 

































































































































































90 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“Oh, I read about the Gordian Knot the 
other day, and here is the shining blade that 
will cut it,” said Stanley, as he drew his knife 
from the never-failing pocket. 

“There! I think that’s done as cleverly as 
Alexander the Great did his task! said Stan¬ 
ley, returning the shining blade to his pocket. 

Before tying up the vine Mr. Gray ex¬ 
amined the string and said, “That string came 
from the Philippines.” 

“How do you know that?” Stanley asked. 

“I know it by its fiber,” said his father. 
“There is a peculiar gloss about Manila fiber 
that none other quite equals. It is also dis¬ 
tinguished by its smoothness and pliability, 
he said, as he tied the string in its place. 

“What we call Manila hemp, however, is 
not a hemp at all,” he explained, “but a kind 
of wild banana that has long, strong leaves 
yielding a fine fiber. There are over a dozen 
varieties of the plant, but all are not so valu¬ 
able as the one which furnished this string 
just now used to fasten our grape vine to its 
trellis. 

“Plants that furnish strings and ropes are 


FROM PLANTS AND FIBERS 


91 


found in many parts of the world and are very 
different in appearance, but all have a fiber 
in their bark or stems or roots or leaves which 
gives them their value. 

“But other things besides plants furnish 
strings. We know how our American Indians 
and our pioneers found roots and bark near 
at hand which supplied their need. Some of 
these are so fine and strong as to be used for 
thread. But besides such strings, the skins 
of animals are cut into strips that are long 
and strong. You remember that Hiawatha’s 
bow had a string of deerskin. 

“Asbestos, which is a mineral with a vege¬ 
table-like fiber, yields a fine silken thread, as 
well as one which is coarse and strong, and 
useful for ropes and lighter cordage. 

“So we learn that strings are furnished by 
the vegetable, animal, and mineral kingdom. 
The world is well supplied with strings, you 
see. 

“America has many fiber plants, but they 
differ greatly in appearance, and one who did 
not know would not at first suppose they 
had a similar use. 


92 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



Fleecy Cotton-Boll 


“We have the little flax plant, delicate and 
graceful; different kinds of hemp; cotton that 
constitutes a wealth in our Southern states; 
silk and wool; and the Sisal growing abund¬ 
antly in Mexico and Yucatan, which furnishes 
America with an enormous trade, both at 
home and abroad. 

“You know about most of these, I think. 

“The flax of America is said to be as differ¬ 
ent in its texture on this side of the world 
as are the people of America from those of 
Egypt. 







The Leaf and Flower of the Cotton Plant 










94 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“The scientific name of flax is Linum and 
from that we have our word Linen. 

“American colonists began to grow flax 
early in the settlement of our country, and our 
great-great-grandmothers were skillful in 
spinning and weaving it into thread and cloth. 

“We learn that the colonists sent to Salis¬ 
bury, England, for John Harrison, a rope- 
maker, who came to Boston in 1841 and 
began his work there. 

“Rope-making and work with flax has not 
changed as much as the work with other fiber 
plants, for it is found that the fiber of flax 
is injured by cutting and by machinery. 

“Longfellow has described the early man¬ 
ner of making ropes and strings of flax, and 
his words recall the simple work as I saw it 
in New England in my early days. 

‘In that building, long and low, 

With its windows all a row, 

Like the portholes of a hulk, 

Human spiders spin and spin, 

Backward down the threads so thin, 
Dropping each a hempen bulk.’ 



The Flax Plant, Delicate and Graceful 






















96 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


“Do you know about the Sisal or Hene- 
quin fiber?” Mr. Gray asked. 

The children shook their heads. 

“It is a cousin to the Century plant which 
it closely resembles in looks and habits,” said 
Mr. Gray. 

“Oh!” exclaimed Stanley, “I know about 
the Century plant. Aunt Lucy has one, and 
she told me it would not blossom till it was 
a hundred years old.” 

“I am afraid Aunt Lucy’s Century plant 
will never blossom in our cold climate,” said 
their father. “In the tropics they blossom 
when but eight or ten years old, sending up 
a tall stalk bearing hundreds of not especially 
handsome flowers. 

“The plants have so many uses that the 
people in those lands where they grow could 
hardly do without them. Prescott, the his¬ 
torian, calls them ‘The Miracle of Nature.’ 
In Mexico they are called ‘Maguey,’ a prod¬ 
uct so prized by the Mexican people that in 
the last century they passed a law that no 
legal document should be written on any 



of the Century Plant 









98 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


paper but that which had been made from 
their own Maguey. 

“Sisal is furnished by a variety of this same 
plant, and looks like it when growing. 

“The fiber from all fiber plants is obtained 
by exposing them to moisture. AJ^hen the 
vegetable part decays it is separated from the 
fiber, which is then dried and combed and 
cleaned. The Sisal fiber is packed in bales and 
sent to the United States to be manufactured 
into twine. 

“The annual export of this twine alone 
amounts to something like fifty millions of 
dollars. 

“So you see we do a big business in strings . 

“But the greatest fiber plant in the world 
is said to be the flax plant of New Zealand. 
It is not a flax, but has been given that name 
because of its uses. 

“The New Zealand flax is not delicate like 
the flax which the world has so long known, 
but its coarse leaves suggest those of the pine¬ 
apple. It grows best in marshy ground, but 
thrives anywhere, on dry hillsides, poor rocky 
soil, along the sea, or among the mountains 


FROM PLANTS AND FIBERS 


99 


where the ground is frozen for weeks to¬ 
gether. 

“Although the plants are coarse their 
spikes of flowers are so full of fragrance as to 
give them the name of honey pots! 

“Only about eight tons of green leaves of 
this New Zealand flax are required to make 
a ton of fiber and there are marshes on the 
island that yield fifty tons to the acre.” 

Jack, the eldest of the three Gray children, 
said, “I read the other day that in ancient 
Egypt strings and cables and ropes were also 
made from papyrus and palm leaves; and 
that when Xerxes bridged the Hellespont he 
used boats supported by cables that were 
twenty-eight inches in circumference, and 
that the cables were made of flax and 
papyrus.” 









RED CEDAR AND GRAPHITE 



T was midnight, just the hour 
when fairies dance in rings, 
when clocks discuss the hours, 
and when the Lady Moon 
comes down to dance with 
the stars on the river. Many 
wonderful things happen at that witching 
hour. 

A little breeze stole in from somewhere 
and rolled the lead pencil over to a pile of 
writing paper. “There!” exclaimed the pen¬ 
cil, “I feel more at home.” 

It was a pale yellow pencil, and bore on 
one side in letters of gold the name of Faber. 

It was, moreover, dulled from much use, 
and only three inches long. 

“I think I’ll begin writing my autobiog¬ 
raphy—our autobiography, I had better say— 
for one of us could never write it without the 
other,” came in a slim little voice. 

“Our story will never be written if we wait 
much longer; our race will soon be run if 


too 




RED CEDAR AND GRAPHITE 1 01 

Master Ned keeps working at his present 
rate, said another voice which came from 
the other half of the pencil. 

‘True, our race will soon be run,” said the 
first voice, ‘‘but we have the comfort of know¬ 
ing we have been useful.” 

There was a little pause and the tall clock 
on the stairs in its stern ticking voice, said, 
‘‘Do it! Do it! Do it!” 

‘‘Well, if your story is to be written we 
must be about it. This pencil will be put to 
other uses as soon as Master Ned gets hold of 
it.” And the pencil began to write. 

“Once upon a time, I who write this story, 
never dreamed of the honor and the useful¬ 
ness that now are mine. 

‘‘But in my story I can no longer say I, for 
I am not alone. As a pencil I am composed of 
cedar and graphite. So the story of each must 
be written separately. 

‘‘Cedar shall first tell its story.” 

Then Cedar began: ‘‘Cedars, though of a 
sharp and bristling temper, are of a noble 
family—from the great Cedars of Lebanon 
which the Bible praises, to the little trees on 


102 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


dry ledges and rocky hillsides that toss low 
branches to the tuneful winds and sing brave 
songs of life while they lend grace to land¬ 
scapes that would be dreary enough without 
them. 

“It is our pride that no wood was account¬ 
ed so valuable for making pencils as the wood 
of the Red Cedar. 

“My tree grew in Southern Florida, with 
its roots in the ooze of a swampy meadow; 
the air was soft and warm and brought the 
music of ocean surges. 

“When the call to usefulness came my 
noble tree, a hundred feet tall, fell with a 
shout. Its grain was close and firm, its wood, 
though enduring, was light and easy to work, 
and its fragrance perfumed the air around it 
and even the hands that broke its branches. 

“Strange days and weeks and many 
months of hard trials followed when axes cut 
it, saws sawed it, fires baked it; machines and 
chisels, knives and varnishes and sand-paper 
—all took turns working at it until my poor 
tree was very much bewildered, and won¬ 
dered what was taking place. 


RED CEDAR AND GRAPHITE 


103 


“Machines cut its wood into millions and 
billions of pieces no more than a quarter of 
an inch in thickness, seven inches long, and 
four and a half inches wide. Other machines 
cut six perfect grooves in each strip. They 
were very particular machines that did their 
work with great accuracy. 

“My brave tree began to see what all its 
trials had meant when the strings of graphite 
were put into the six grooves of the seven-inch 
strips, and other strips that matched were 
neatly glued over. Other machines pressed 
and sawed and cut the thin strips in which 
we lay, and in time we began to look like six 
lead pencils. Much more, however, was re¬ 
quired to make us perfect, beautiful, and 
ready for use. We were rounded and 
smoothed and varnished, and last of all, by a 
curious die the name “Faber” was stamped 
well into each pencil. So well was it done 
that even the restless fingers of Master Ned 
have not worn it off. 

“My other half—Graphite—without which 
I could never have come to such usefulness, or 


104 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


have written this history, may now finish our 
story.” 

The little strip of Cedar that had such a 
long and tragic tale to tell became silent, but 
it shone with a soft light. It may have been 
from its sand-papering and its ten coats of 
varnish, or it may have been from the pride 
and gladness it felt at being useful. 

There was a silence of a few minutes after 
the Cedar had told its story. The tall clock 
on the stairs ticked loudly, as if it too had a 
story to tell. Presently it seemed to be saying, 
“Hurry up! Hurry up!” and the Graphite un¬ 
derstood and began to write briskly. This is 
what it wrote: 

“I am Graphite. I am related to coal, but 
I do not burn. I am first cousin to the dia¬ 
mond, but I am never worn as a jewel. Jewels 
are well enough in their places, but to be of 
such service as I am, seems to me to be worth 
a million times more than all the jewels in a 
king’s crown. 

Graphite, I must tell you, is found in 
many places in the ground, but is often im¬ 
pure, that is, it has other things mixed with 



“My Tree Grew in Southern Florida" 

































106 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


it. In Siberia, Mexico, Bohemia and Ceylon 
there are mines of quite pure graphite. I came 
from a mine in far off Siberia, but even the 
best of us endure many strange trials and ex¬ 
periences before we can be worthy of use in 
a pencil, like this one which has served Master 
Ned so faithfully. 

“When I was taken from the mine I first 
lay in a dark gray mass that gave no hint of 
what I was to be. Soon I was pounded so 
severely that I cried out at every blow. After 
this I was broken into small pieces that all 
impurities might be removed; and I began to 
understand that all I had experienced was to 
rid me of what would have hindered my use¬ 
fulness. 

“Next I was thrown into tanks of water and 
lay there until I quite feared I should be 
drowned. Fortunately, I was rescued and 
dried, but my trials were by no means over. I 
was next ground to powder. Then I was 
mixed with clay. After all I had been through 
you may understand how I shrank from the 
clay lest 1 should be again impure. I was made 
to understand that I must not think myself the 


RED CEDAR AND GRAPHITE 107 

only perfect element. The clay had been puri¬ 
fied as well as I, and together we were to do 
better work than either of us could do alone. 

“I had grown hard and unyielding. The 
clay mellowed and softened me. Together 
we were pounded by machinery until we be¬ 
came easily-worked dough. Other machines 
pinched us and pulled us out into slender 
strips like fine wire and cut us into lengths 
that fitted the grooves which Cedar has de¬ 
scribed; and the other grooved strips were 
glued over. So carefully were the two pieces 
joined that when the pencil was finished no 
line was seen. 

“All these experiences were strange and 
unusual to me, who had lived so long in one 
quiet mine, although I had had hard experi¬ 
ences in the earth which had made me into 
graphite. 

“Like Cedar, we rejoice now that even by 
such trials we have become pencils. 

“I heard Master Ned say but yesterday, 
‘The lead in my pencil is broken off. I won¬ 
der what mine this lead came from.’ 

“I wanted to tell him there is no lead at 


108 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 


all in his pencil. He should have known bet¬ 
ter. Besides, after such strange trials as 1 have 
endured I like to be understood. Before 
Graphite was discovered, however, lead was 
used and with the change from lead to graph¬ 
ite there was no change in the name, and still 
we are all called lead pencils.” 

The next morning Ned found on the desk 
the story of his pencil all written out, and the 
little yellow pencil lying motionless beside 
the paper. He wondered who could have 
done it. 

When he had read the story his father told 
him that the first factory for making pencils 
was at Stein, near Nuremberg, that ancient 
town in Bavaria so full of old cathedrals and 
stories of art and of great artists; and he read 
him the pretty poem by Longfellow about old 
Nuremberg. 

It was there, his father said, that the fa¬ 
mous pencil-maker, Casper Faber, began to 
manufacture the pencils that have made him 
famous. From there his shops supplied the 
world with pencils for more than a hundred 
years. 



It Seemed To Be Saying 
“Hurry Up! Hurry Up!” 













































110 


COLUMBUS AND PEPPER 



But the world was growing, and the art of 
making pencils was growing, too, and in 1 848 
the great-grandson of Casper Faber came to 
New York and began to make pencils in 
America. 

“At the time of the great Civil War,” his 
father concluded, “Faber built his own fac¬ 
tory in New York, and with more and more 
machinery the work went on. That New 
York factory, Ned, is where this pencil of 














































































RED CEDAR AND GRAPHITE 


yours was made. You see it bears the name 
of ‘Faber’ in letters of gold. 

“Other factories for making lead pencils 
have since been built, and America now man¬ 
ufactures nine-tenths of all the pencils used 
in our country and many more that are sent 
to other lands.” 










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